Do they really only get paid $35k?
New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
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Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
And...there is the other end. My brother is a pilot and was retired by the Air Force because he had been in so long...so out he goes. Now he is a contractor flying drones for them getting paid 3x as much while drawing a hefty retirement. My brother loved the Air Force and wanted to stay...now he gets to stay and get paid a boat load more. Air Force brass not very smart.
Would you please add to you message whether he flies lethal drones or just pure reconnaissance? While some people could be tempted with "paid 3x as much..." most will pass on this opportunity, learning you actually have to drop bombs and undoubtedly kill people for your tripled pay rate.
What makes you think that most people who join the military would be strongly averse to killing people? Even if you're flying pure reconnaissance you're helping and enabling the people doing the killing.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#93Seems like the Air Force is trapped in a vicious underhiring/overhiring cycle. When I was in college I did Air Force ROTC. A lot of my peers had pilot slots; I was poised as a 17D (Cyber Ops). After graduating, my training date was put on hold virtually indefinitely. Eventually I got an email that the Air Force had commissioned way too many officers and were looking for people to voluntarily leave with no commitment/…
If this was around 10 or so years ago, my understanding for the stricter pilot requirements was that same glut of recruits. The Air Force flip-flops on how strict or lax they are on some of those based on the need for pilots at any given time. When there's a deficit, suddenly someone with 20/70 vision can get a slot as a heavy (cargo or bomber) pilot, but when there's a glut they want everyone to have 20/20 vision. It's an arbitrary discriminator because they don't have more effective methods.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
And...there is the other end. My brother is a pilot and was retired by the Air Force because he had been in so long...so out he goes. Now he is a contractor flying drones for them getting paid 3x as much while drawing a hefty retirement. My brother loved the Air Force and wanted to stay...now he gets to stay and get paid a boat load more. Air Force brass not very smart.
Would you please add to you message whether he flies lethal drones or just pure reconnaissance? While some people could be tempted with "paid 3x as much..." most will pass on this opportunity, learning you actually have to drop bombs and undoubtedly kill people for your tripled pay rate.
While some people could be tempted with "paid 3x as much..."
...3x as much as an Air Force pilot whose job is to...wait for it...sometimes drop bombs on people and kill them.
Let me know if you need a step ladder to help you off that high horse.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#95Do they really only get paid $35k?
That's the incentive bonus.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#96This is interesting because the military pilots I know simply love to fly. It's an amazing opportunity to fly amazing kit, and to get tons and tons of airtime. The pay was never that great, and young people in their early 20's shouldn't mind deployments in the midwest or wherever. Also, it's a very aspirational job: "Jet Fighter Pilot". They make video games of that. Every little boy, at some point, considered wantin…
An aspirational job is a recipe for supply problems.
Whether it's fighter piloting, game development, teaching, acting, athletics, or music, you'll find people who love the idea of the work and are willing (for a time) to be exploited and mistreated for the "opportunity".
Employment, at its most basic level, is a business transaction: Employees sell their time and skills, employers offer financial compensation in exchange. This exchange is complicated by expectations of status, morality, patriotism, fulfillment, health care, education, high risk/reward opportunities, societal obligations, and so on into the sales pitch. It's also complicated when the actual job involves fewer fun flight hours and more paper-pushing, distant deployments, bureaucracy, and boot-licking (all revealed only after time in the job). problems are going to arise. Specifically, financial compensation can be reduced, working conditions made worse, and responsibilities increased, without immediate feedback from the starry-eyed recruits.
But eventually, someone taking a critical look at their employment will say "This isn't as glamorous as I expected. It actually kind of sucks." A while later, starry-eyed recruits will hear about that and stop thinking that the job is Top Gun and think it's more like Office Space. And someday, way down the road, management will wonder why there's a shortage of people willing to work in the conditions they created for the pay they're offering.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#97I can't fathom how the answer to the pilot shortage couldn't simply be "pay them more". They are flying $100 million dollar planes, pilot salary must be a drop in the bucket.
But then you'd have pilots making more than Generals.
I'm not sure I understand. The reason you pay more for higher ranks is because you want to incentivize people to work to be promoted to those ranks, right? If you have enough generals but not enough pilots, it ought to flip.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
>risking your life for a counterproductive endless war that the American public barely knows is happening. Yet the American public happily votes for these wars over and over.
As an American voter, I can assure you my choices have always been war or war.
Tulsi Gabbard.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
But then you'd have pilots making more than Generals.
I'm not sure I understand. The reason you pay more for higher ranks is because you want to incentivize people to work to be promoted to those ranks, right? If you have enough generals but not enough pilots, it ought to flip.
> The reason you pay more for higher ranks is because you want to incentivize people to work to be promoted to those ranks
Also to compensate for more responsibility and experience.
But we aren't logical beings, and pay is part of social status.
Re: New study shows grim outlook for future of Air Force pilot shortage
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
And...there is the other end. My brother is a pilot and was retired by the Air Force because he had been in so long...so out he goes. Now he is a contractor flying drones for them getting paid 3x as much while drawing a hefty retirement. My brother loved the Air Force and wanted to stay...now he gets to stay and get paid a boat load more. Air Force brass not very smart.
Would you please add to you message whether he flies lethal drones or just pure reconnaissance? While some people could be tempted with "paid 3x as much..." most will pass on this opportunity, learning you actually have to drop bombs and undoubtedly kill people for your tripled pay rate.
There are so many core misconceptions you have about the nature of volunteer service in an armed profession, its people, and your statement is so tangential and charged with auxillery purpose that i question whether you actually care about the pilot shortage at all